The Price of Coal - NZ 2012

The Price of Coal - NZ 2012

Today the Minister of State Owned Enterprises, MP Tony Ryall, met with
miners' representatives from Spring Creek who had journeyed
to Parliament from Greymouth to make an appeal to the
government to preserve their jobs and to intervene
financially; below are videos of the
Minister's statement and the reaction from miners'
representative Trevor Bolderson.

Most of what was said
by the minister had unpleasant echoes in the history of
de-nationalisation of primary industries in the UK under
successive Conservative governments, particularly the
closure of UK collieries from 1984 onwards (see also the BBC). Although the ideological divide
between the minister and the miners is not the same
political gulf that divided government and miners in the UK,
the fundamental assumptions driving their perspectives are
as starkly divided. The position of the government is that
a non-interventionist approach to industrial employment is
the most appropriate response under the present global
economic conditions; the miners argue that this is
short-sighted and, consequently, the company and government
are serving their communities very badly by their actions.

The major issue that concerns the New Zealand government,
which Tony Ryall's statement focuses on, is the
profitability of coal mining. This is a question still
hanging over the future of the largest remaining UK coal
mine, Daw Mill in Arley, this year (see The Guardian), and similar questions
apply to extractive industries elsewhere. The central
problem is not whether coal mining in New Zealand will be
profitable according to the dictates of the international
market but how to develop and undertake longer-term
strategies for coping with the inevitable fluctuations and
declining profitability without doing substantial long-term
damage to towns and regions dependent on those market
forces. To that problem, today's meeting seems to offer no
firm answers. Report on
the Statements to the PressThe minister was
asked whether he listened to the proposals suggested by the
miners. He responded that, in the end, the decision was made by
the board of Solid Energy and was solely determined by the
board. He insisted that it was primarily dictated by the
collapse of international coal prices and had nothing to do
with the government's assets sales programme. He ruled out
any possibility of a capital injection by the government and
said that the government was not considering any further
financial support for the company.

Asked whether this
"collapse" of international coal prices meant that the sale
of shares in Solid Energy might be negatively affected, the
minister responded that it was "a question to reflect upon".
The minister said that the board of Solid Energy was well
aware that this was a difficult decision which was going to
adversely affect communities on the East Coast and was not
undertaken lightly.

On the steps of Parliament the
miners gave their response to the meeting. Miners'
representative Trevor Bolderson was forthright in his
disappointment at the result. He said that he was
distraught and that he and many others were unsure of what
they could do now.

Asked whether he and others might
look for work in Australia he responded that this was not an
option for him because he would not meet the visa
requirements; he said that Solid Energy had spent $20,000 to
bring him over from the UK with the understanding that he
would have work in New Zealand for up to 20 years, and that
now he found himself out of work after only five years. He
added that even if he could move to Australia to find work
legally he lacked the money to do so as all his assets were
tied up in the mortgage on his house and although he said he
would not speak for his fellow miners he was aware many were
in similar situations.

In parting, Mr Bolderson said he
wished he had never heard the name Solid Energy.

Journalist and independent academic researcher with primary interests in politics and literature.

As a researcher I am a contributor to various academic publications, including Alluvium journal of 21st century literature, The Literary London Journal, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, and Critical Engagements: Journal of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies (UKNMFS).

As a journalist, I have worked as Parliamentary reporter for Scoop Independent Media and International editor for the Scoop Review of Books.

CONTACT MARK P. WILLIAMS

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